ADC says it does not trust INEC to protect its votes in 2027 elections

The African Democratic Congress says it does not trust the Independent National Electoral Commission to protect its votes during the 2027 general elections and plans to independently collate results from polling units.

ADC National Publicity Secretary Bolaji Abdullahi made the comments during an appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today.

Abdullahi referred to controversies surrounding electronic transmission of results during the 2023 elections, saying those experiences had made the party more cautious about relying entirely on INEC’s systems.

He said the ADC would make arrangements to monitor and collate its own results and would compare them with official results announced by the electoral commission.

The party spokesman said the ADC would accept results if they accurately reflected votes cast at polling units but would challenge outcomes it believed did not correspond with its records.

His comments come as political parties intensify preparations for the January 2027 elections.

INEC has published the final list of presidential candidates for the election, including President Bola Tinubu of the APC, Atiku Abubakar of the ADC and Peter Obi of the NDC.

The ADC has also recently called on INEC to address other electoral concerns, including the involvement of academics with publicly expressed partisan positions in result collation and the timetable for Permanent Voter Card distribution.

INEC has not, in the source material for this story, been shown responding specifically to Abdullahi’s latest statement about trust in the commission.